COVID-19: Georgia Doesn’t Have New York’s Problem Or Need New York’s Solutions

by Louie Brogdon Something struck me in one of Newt’s recent columns. Citing some COVID-19 mortality statistics, he wrote: “New York, our fourth largest state, has had about seven times as many COVID-19 deaths as the second and third largest states combined. It has also had nearly seven times as many deaths as the largest state, California. Meanwhile, Georgia Governor Brian Kemp has led his state into a controlled reopening. So far, Georgia has had a little more than 1,600 deaths.” This spurred me to take a wider look at COVID-19 deaths nationwide. What I found was surprising — given the amount of time, effort, and attention the media and our entire society are paying to the virus. According to data from Johns Hopkins University, the 28,636 deaths in New York state (as of this writing) account for about 31 percent of all COVID-19 deaths in America and our territories. So, nearly one-third of the total deaths are in a single state. Johns Hopkins began tracking the data on Jan. 22, 2020. Further, five states make up the next third of US COVID-19 deaths: New Jersey (10,749), Massachusetts (6,066), Michigan (5,060), Pennsylvania (4,770), and Illinois (4,525). I was struck by these figures as well because these states are not even our most populous. The biggest of the five, Pennsylvania, is 5th in terms of population nationwide, while Massachusetts is 15th. The remaining third of American deaths from the coronavirus (33,800 fatalities as of this writing) are spread across 49 states, territories, or locations (Johns Hopkins recorded deaths on the Grand Princess cruise ship as a distinct location). Thirty-seven of the 49 places in the bottom third have seen fewer than 1,000 deaths from the virus. Of these, 30 have seen fewer than 500 deaths, 14 have seen fewer than 100, and nine have seen fewer than 50. Now, these numbers don’t mean that COVID-19 is only a big problem in New York and the hardest-hit states. We must fight the virus everywhere. However, they do help frame our response. Why should communities in South Dakota, where there have been 46 deaths and 3,023 recoveries, need to behave as though they are dealing with a New York scale problem? Why should our second largest state, Texas, (which is home to 29 million people) be socially and economically paralyzed by the virus response when it has seen 1,431 deaths and more than 30,341 recoveries? And, to Newt’s political point, why should Republican governors in Georgia and Florida be accused of engaging in “human sacrifice” for wanting to reopen their communities when Democrats lead eight out of the 10 states with the highest number of COVID-19 casualties? Where is the criticism for those eight governors who are presiding over nearly 68 percent of all the COVID-19 deaths we’ve seen? The combination of one-size-fits all virus response and lopsided reporting has made for a distorted picture of what’s happening. Yes, we are facing a big problem, but most of America is doing a better job of containing the virus than you might think. However, the economic pain of the pandemic is being felt everywhere. It’s time to start healing that hurt where we can. https://www.gingrich360.com/trump-and-the-american-future Louie Brogdon has been working with me at Gingrich 360 three years. He helped me develop and edit my last three nonfiction books – Understanding Trump, Trump’s America, and Trump vs. China. He also helps me with space policy and politics. – Newt Newt's Latest Podcasts: